Camping at Granite Flats

We went camping at Granite Flats while we were in Utah. It was so much fun to be in the outdoors. The kids had a blast and got soooo dirty. They loved it! There was a stream right by one of our campgrounds (unfortunately, it was by Craig and Sandy's campground) and it was really pretty. We tried to make it 3 nights but we only ended up staying 2 nights. The night before we went home I got burned on my neck. A charcoal piece from out campfire popped up and just happened to land right on the back of my neck. It gave me a pretty good 2nd degree burn, but luckily it healed up pretty fast. Although, it made for an uncomfortable night sleep in the tent.

There was a little bridge by our campsite and the boys had so much fun playing 3 Billy Goats Gruff. They loved taking turns being the mean troll under the bridge.

Ben played hard and was pretty much worn out by 8 o'clock every night. He was always the last one up at the campsite.

4th of July in Utah

We just returned to LA from a 2 1/2 week vacation in Utah. After living in this area it was such a breath of fresh air to be by the mountains and with family. Not to mention the freedom of driving around without having to look at a single offensive billboard. On the drive back, once we hit Vegas we knew we were coming back to the city. Jim took his last qualifying exam on July 2nd and we took off the next day in time to get there for the 4th of July. We had a fun time watching the fireworks. Unfortunately Ben didn't go with us because he was terrified of the loud booms that they made. So he stayed home with Grandpa that night. But the rest of us enjoyed the fireworks.

Luke did a couple of sparklers but after almost putting out his own eye as well as everyone else and coming really close to burning the blanket we decided it was time to be done. But just look at that cute face! Isn't he adorable! Even with slobbery, gooey, blue taffy all over his chin :)

End of the school year

Jimmy's last day of school was last Friday. He has had such a great year and has learned so much. I can't believe the way he has matured this last year. They ended school with a dance festival which involved the whole school. It was really fun to watch. The kindergarten did a dance called "Obama Hustle." They did a great job! Congratulations on a great year Jimmy! We are so proud of you!

This is Jimmy with his teacher Mrs. Brown. She is really an amazing teacher. She is getting ready to retire so next year will be her last year. I am really disappointed that Ben and Luke won't have the privilege of having her as a teacher. She is a fabulous teacher who sincerely cares about her job and, more importantly, cares about the kids she teaches. She has a way of truly bring out the best in each child. She certainly did in Jimmy and he LOVES to learn thanks to her! He is so cute. I told him that he should keep learning during the summer so each day during Luke's nap time we have been doing "summer school." We just read and do art projects and stuff like that but it's a lot of fun for us. I really hope that he will keep that love of learning with him throughout the rest of his life. Good teachers have a way of bringing that out in the kids they teach. Thanks Mrs. Brown for doing an amazing job!

New members of the family

For about the past 3 years my kids have been asking me if they can have a pet. Well finally that day has come. A friend of ours who recently moved away left us the fish tank along with 2 gold fish. The boys were soooo excited for their new pets. They are doing a great job of taking care of them. I was hoping that getting the fish would dispel their hopes of having other pets but I'm afraid it has only intensified them. They want a dog named Bolt, a cat named Mittens and a hamster named Rhino. (If you've seen Bolt you know what I am talking about.) That's not all. Ben also wants a pet bumble bee of all things! And the other day he said that he wants a baby whale and a baby elephant! He's just going to have to be happy with a visit to the zoo and the aquarium every once in a while for that. As far as the dog, cat and hamster go there is only so much we can do in an apartment. They know that the dog and the cat for sure have to wait until we get a house. Whew! That buys a little time. And I am just not ready to own a rodent yet. I really have to get over my fear first. I could maybe do a hamster in a year or two. We'll see. For now, we will just enjoy the fish!

Here are the boys trying hard to make their best fish faces. . .

The creativity of kids

The other day I dropped a whole bunch of q-tips on the floor and my initial reaction was to just pick them up and throw them away but before I could even reach for them Ben grabbed them and took them to the table. He proceeded to arrange the q-tips into different shapes. I just sat and watched him in amazement as he played and created.

Here is the proud architect and the finished product! I love the creativity of kids!

Trip to Arizona

Last week I decided to go visit my sister and her family in Arizona. Jim was in the middle of finals and I just needed a break from this place. My mom flew to LA and drove with me. Thank you so much mom! You're the best! I don't think I would have made the 6 hour drive with 3 kids alone. We had such a fun time. My boys absolutely adore my sisters three girls! Oh and don't let me forget their dog Missy. They would not leave the poor dog alone. You know how some people say that they are baby hungry, well, my boys are "dog" hungry! They are always telling me that they want a dog. Luckily I can use the apartment excuse for a few more years. They'll just have to wait. The day after we got home Luke went to our front door and said, "Go see Missy!" He just doesn't quite get the concept of having to drive 6 hours to see Missy. Luckily I distracted him with something else and he soon forgot about it - until he saw the pics of Missy on the computer! We had a great time while we were there. We went swimming a lot. . .

We played with the dog. . .

And had a blast playing with our cousins!

Thanks Pam and family for a great time :)

Lessons Learned

In the last 24 hours I have learned a few lessons - some are hard lessons learned and some are fairly easy lessons learned.

Lesson #1 - Close your garage door when you go out. If you don't you might get stuff stolen from the homeless people who decided to take up residency in the abandoned parking garage nearby. Yes, this happened to me yesterday between the hours of 3-6pm. In the middle of the day! I went out and didn't shut my garage door and when I returned all of our camping gear and supplies had been stolen along with 12 gallons or so of our emergency water storage. I called the police, of course, and apparently this is a common occurrence around here. Big surprise huh! (I guess I need to add theft to my list of crazy things that have happened to us in L. A. from the previous post.) I am not totally sure that it was the homeless people but who else would steal camping gear and gallons of water!?

Lesson #2 - Don't say things that you don't want your kids to say. I don't even remember saying this but I guess I called one of my kids a "freakin monkey" probably when they were climbing all over me like I was a tree. Or maybe it was Jim who said it, who knows. But anyway, Ben has been saying it all morning. It is especially embarrassing when he says it to other people. I can't really say anything to him about it like "we don't say that word" because if I do that will only make him want to say it more and how can I say that to him when he heard it from me. At least he's not dropping the F-bomb or anything like that. I know for a fact that he has never heard that in our house. Now once we walk outside our door it is a different story, but if "freakin" is the worst thing he is saying I think we are doing pretty good. Like the time when Jimmy was playing a little game he made up by putting B's in front of every word he said including the word "kitchen." I told him not to say it so, of course, he said it again. Luckily, he was pretty mature about it when I told him that it was a bad word and he stopped saying it. I'm not sure if Ben would understand as well as Jimmy did though. They are really like little sponges soaking up EVERYTHING they hear so I better watch what I say!

Lesson #3 - Don't believe everything that you hear. Last Sunday we had a 5.0 earthquake which shook me up a lot. (Yet another thing to add to my Crazy L. A. list!) Back in the fall I barely felt a minor earthquake that we had. But since last Sunday we have had a couple more earthquakes, which I haven't felt, but other people have. So every time it comes up in a conversation people keep telling me that they have predicted the L. A. is expected to have a huge 9.0 or 10.0 any day now. (Yea, and L. A. is going to fall into the ocean! Whatever!) At first, it freaked me out a little bit but then I realized that most people don't really know and they really have no way of predicting earthquakes so I better not lose sleep over some crazy stuff that people say.

Lesson #4 - It is okay to put my kids in front of the TV for a little while so I can catch up on stuff. I usually limit the TV watching my kids do to like an hour a day and I try to save it up for when I am making dinner. But with all of the earthquakes and robberies going on around here, I have been a little stressed and when I get stressed I have a really hard time keeping my house clean. And because it is a mess I get more stressed and it is just a vicious cycle. So finally this morning, I decided to turn on the TV for the kids so I could just clean my house. I got so much done. After about an hour the kids lost interest in TV so I just gave Ben a spray bottle and a rag and he was a great little helper "wiping" up all of the spots on the kitchen and bathroom floor. A spray bottle is a great toy for a 3 year old! Remember that the next time you have to clean and you need something to entertain your kids with!